How to organise consciousness: part 2

Last time we were talking about Spiral Dynamics and the Levels (or stages) and Tiers of consciousness / ego development.

Where we left off, the 2nd tier started with the Yellow stage.

To quickly recap – Yellow is the first level or stage where we transcend the previous stage and integrate what came before (instead of rejecting it).

The rejection that came before, creates internal strain, as we are effectively telling ourselves that “this part of myself is not OK”…

So there are hopefully (to you) obvious benefits of accepting those rejected parts of ourselves (if not, get in touch for more information).

At Yellow we retain our values and holistic perspective of the previous stage, whilst gaining and even broader perspective. Exciting stuff!

AND we’re also able to reclaim our structured approach to being in the world. In a more balanced way this time. Allowing us access to beauty at the same time.

These days there are a lot of business calling themselves Teal. They believe themselves to be following Yellow (or Teal, depending on who you talk to) consciousness, in their approach to business. The three major principles of these Teal organisations are: Self-management, Wholeness and Evolutionary Purpose.

I’ll talk more about this another time. But if you’d like to read up on this some more. Check out Reinventing Organizations by Frederick Laloux. It’s a great read:

For now, I want to tell you a bit more about my own story:

In 2009 I seemed to be breaking through something massive within myself and it came with a fair amount of pain.

I was depressed, anxious, mildly agoraphobic and my social skills had become almost non-existent as I scrambled to make sense of what was going on for me.

In retrospect, I had started to open the door into higher levels of ego development. This is what I’ve come to know (from Spiral Dynamics) as Turquoise consciousness (the stage after Yellow).

At this level, when I wasn’t struggling to keep my sanity (or so it felt), everything seemed to make sense in a whole new way. I’d walk around outside, in awe of nature. When recollecting social interactions, I felt that I could see nuances in the dynamics that had previously eluded me. I absolutely had a broader perspective on things.

I felt an internal stability and awareness. In some ways I had so much clarity and direction. I had an indescribable sense of things, that I felt deeply comforted by. AND at the same time, I felt great sadness and pain. I told myself that this was because of the state of the world I witnessing.

This is the kind of Paradox that is so often associated with 2nd tier consciousness and beyond.

I was particularly struck by how downtrodden people seemed to be on the whole in our society. Everywhere I saw people dragging themselves to and from jobs they hate, living lives of “quiet desperation”. I put this down to a lack of purpose, fractured psyches and a lack of community.

At the time, I was studying for a part-time masters and also working part-time, but found both of these commitments extremely difficult to maintain.

Though I was peeking my head into Turqouise at this point, I was incapable of finding my grounding within it. When I started to find my feet, I launched into action. My cause became to help people find wholeness by integrating their work with the rest of their lives. In order to achieve that, I believed that we all needed to learn how to become more self-reliant and to get on with others better.

In my enthusiasm, I took on waaaay too much, which caused me great trouble. But working through that process of bringing structure to my life is what brought me to you here today.

So I expect many of you are in the paradox soup I describe above.

Feeling deeply and wanting to make progress, yet also feeling incapacitated by your internal churning.

If you want support through this process, I’d love to help out. Get in touch.

In fact, you may particularly appreciate my Purpose In Action course. That is one of the gifts I gained from my last “great expansion” and I’d love to share it with you. So click the link below to find out more:

P.S. I’m in the process of turning Purpose In Action into a self-study program. So only a limited time longer, I will be delivering it live. That means you’ll get a lot more of my focused attention and personal mentoring. I’d love to help you out. So please do get in touch.

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Hi, I'm David. When I'm not working on The Ethical Organiser, you'll find me studying kung fu, with my family or designing a farm for the future. I get excited about self-sufficiency, sustainability and community. If you want to learn more, get in touch. I'd love to meet you to see if we can create your dreams together.